The Globe and Mail – June 11, 2018 – A new Canadian venture-capital fund focused on financial technology, and seeded by several top finance institutions operating in Quebec, has opened for business with $75-million in backing and two tech-sector veterans as partners.
Luge Capital, created last October, with a commitment of $25-million each from the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and Desjardins Group, said Monday it has raised a further $25-million from Sun Life Financial, the FTQ Solidarity Fund and La Capitale, and may raise up to another $25-million in the coming months.
The independent fund will be led by two Canadians. One is Montreal-based David Nault, previously a principal with Montreal-based venture-capital firm iNovia Capital and, before that, president of information security compliance software provider Callio Technologies. He is joined by Karim Gillani, former head of corporate development for crossborder remittance company Xoom, which was acquired in 2015 by Paypal for US$890-million. Before that, he was a mergers and acquisitions executive with BlackBerry in Silicon Valley. He will be based out of Toronto.